Some results on the stability of positive switched linear systems

Abstract

In this paper, we present a number of results concerned with the stability of positive switched linear systems. In particular, we show that a recent conjecture concerning the existence of common quadratic Lyapunov functions (CQLFs) for positive LTI systems is true for second order systems, and establish a class of switched linear systems for which CQLF existence is equivalent to exponential stability under arbitrary switching. However, this conjecture is false for higher dimensional systems and we illustrate this fact with a counterexample. A number of stability criteria for positive switched linear systems based on common diagonal Lyapunov functions (CDLFs) are also presented, as well as a necessary and sufficient condition for a general pair of positive LTI systems to have a CDLF To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time that a necessary and sufficient condition for CDLF existence for n-dimensional systems has appeared in the literature.